I am happy to say that I still want to be the teacher I began the semester hoping to be. I strive to be respectful and authoritative, while being friendly to both students and other teachers. I want to set reachable goals for students and also myself. I absolutely do not want to be an absent teacher. I can't stand the feeling of knowing that the students care more about a class than the teachers, and becoming this kidn of person would be very disappointing. I don't want to be a "yeller" or a "boring teacher" or even a "pushover" by being too nice. Most simply put, I want to be a great teacher.
I hope to leave a positive impact on my students. I want them to be able to look back on my time in school as fun but also as productive. I don't want my class to be only fun or only work, and I hope that I was able to achieve the balance of both. Busy work is one of my pet peeves as a student, so I assign very few assignments. Anything that I do require has a lot of merit and requires critical thinking. Students are required to reflect on their performance in my class and their behavior outside of class. I integrated Rachel's Challenge into a goal setting lesson, which is another takeaway I hope the students can appreciate.
After getting my first teaching position (which at this point I consider an accomplishment in iteself!) I would like to become an approachable teacher. I do not want to be a background staff member, never seen at meetings or only hear from on the sign in sheet. I would like to take part in a mentoring program and become familiar with teachers in my department and outside of it.
My most important feeling that I want students to associate with science is fun. Now, fun can be interpreted in many different ways, which I am well aware of. But I am not scared of a fun classroom, as long as there is control. I hope to allow enough room for students to grow academically and socially, while still enjoying my class while learning. I don't see any need for the abscence of creative projects or group discussions that are slightly off topic from the days lesson, as long as the students are being reqpectful and I am able to control the class. This is both for safety and academic reasons. Through student teaching I have realized how some of my goals seem "far-fetched" but I am proud to say that they all still stand. I want to be a teacher, friend, adult, scientist and voice of the school for my students and colleagues. Overall I hope to adopt a respectful classroom environment so that we can have fun while doing science, and not have to separate the two.
Teaching Inspiration
My teaching inspiration is definitely my high school math teacher. I had her both my junior and senior years. I decided to take AP Calculus my senior year, even though it was first period, since she was teaching. I first met her when she had my friend in her extended math class. She began talking to me as a way to make me get my friend to class on time. I began to have a friendship with her and switched my schedule around so I could be in her class. She was a great teacher in addition to being a great person. I went to her with my problems, both personal and when applying to colleges. She convinced me to believe in my own math aptitude and I ended up getting a 4 on the AP calculus test and with her help got a 700 on my math SAT. I am still in touch with her today and hope that I can follow her example in teaching style and attitude.
3/5 - This is a good start, Kathleen. You should expand on some of your statements so that the finished product has an introduction, a middle, and a conclusion.
CT's Teaching Style
Since my first day observing in my CT’s classroom, I have definitely noticed her unique teaching style. Her laid-back demeanor and friendly behavior allow the 9th grade students in the five classes to feel at ease and welcomed. This being said, she is also strict with the rules that she sets. The students are more than welcome to joke around with her in the classroom, as long as there is a underlying respectful nature of the jokes. When the respect is gone, so is the freedom and privileges students are used to. This visit I focused on two classes of the same subject, one with a welcoming ambiance and one with a volatile atmosphere between the students.
The first class of Team Science is a class with noticeably immature students. The students are constantly out of their seats, making fun of each other, throwing a variety of objects across the room and even yelling at the teacher and the aid. My CT does absolutely not tolerate this behavior, although she is running out of ideas to enforce her rules. She expressed to me how she is upset by the fact that this class is becoming a stressful environment for not only her to teach in but also the other students to learn in. Primarily, there is one troubled student who is constantly arguing back to the teacher. He tries to get his friends to agree with him, which causes more bad behavior. Lately, the other students are beginning to get annoyed by him, and he is no longer able to get their attention. He is the only one that is continuously getting in trouble for acting out, and doesn’t seem to be slowing down his behavior. I witnessed him cursing not only about the work he was expected to do, but also at being “stuck in this hell hole of a class” under his breath. None of the students were reacting to his behavior, which seemed to only make him more upset.
The second class of Team Science could not be more different. The students are also more immature in this class, but in a friendlier way. These students are more likely to laugh at the word “fart” than to start arguments with the teacher. I have witnessed every single one of these students do their work when told to, including notes from the board and worksheets, with only being reminded once. This class does have some students who speak up, but when they are reprimanded the argument is immediately over and there are no hurt feelings. This class is also almost a whole lesson ahead of the other, since they are able to get through the curriculum easier. The students in this class respect both my CT and myself, and are constantly under control even though there is no Teachers Aid in the room.
The other three classes are much more like the second class I described above, with friendly atmospheres and are able to complete their work. The first Team Class is unique in that I was able to see how one student can ruin a classroom. I understand that this immaturity is very abundant in a 9th grade classroom, but I am not sure how teachers can cope with the stress if it was in every class. I was more “drained” after this one class than I was after the whole day combined. My CT is able to keep the power in the classroom, which is a good and a bad thing. She is able to maintain the attention of the students, while still giving them freedoms that they understand can be taken away if abused. On the other side, she will not give up the power in the classroom to students who do not deserve it, which causes more issues when students are relentless about winning arguments. I definitely want to keep the power in my classroom, but understand that this is much more necessary in 9th grade classes. Being in a 9th grade classroom is constantly a respect and power struggle, which is something I am looking forward to conquering as one of my challenges as a student teacher.
CT's Classroom Management
Classroom management is something that I think all teachers struggle to excel in. I know my CT is extremely effective at controlling the moods of the 9th graders in the classroom, and even she sometimes has trouble. It is hard to maintain a calm demeanor when there is a lot of chaos in the room. For this reflection I chose to write about two occurrences where an unordinary event occurred that upset the classroom and how my CT handled the situation. The first event I witnessed was my first fire drill. It was uncommonly warm out for the first week of November, and there was a fire drill with 20 minutes left in the class period. Of course, word broke out among the students that there was going to be a “surprise” fire drill and they would not stop talking among themselves. The whole class made it to the meeting spot on time, and back to the classroom together, but when we returned there was almost no way to get any work done. The students were out of control, and two of the boys seemed to think that it was ok to have a volleyball game across the room with their scrap paper. As a whole, the students were very excited and in a good mood, but the energy in the room was disobedient. My CT changed her plans for the rest of the class and had the students finish the work they were supposed to do for homework. They were allowed to read or talk to their neighbor when they were finished, but this privilege got take away. She always tells the students that they start with freedoms and they get taken away when they do not earn them, and the talking and bad behavior was why they had to sit quietly and finish their work. Also, she had the homework sheet count as a graded worksheet (instead of just checked for completion) in order to reinforce the consequence of acting out. The second time I was not present for, but it was a significant even that I wish to reflect on. The day before Thanksgiving break, Westerly High School has a spirit day. There is a hot coco station all day, the band plays through the hallways and the end of the day is replaced with a pep rally. Overall this day is seen to be a waste of teacher’s time, since none of the teachers can get the students to work productively. From what I have heard, there were a lot of movies shown in class in hopes that the students wouldn’t cause disruptions to other rooms. In my classroom, my CT said the students were listening to her as far as noise level was concerned but there is no hope of getting any work done whenever it is a pep rally day. In addition to being spirit day, this is the day that most students got asked as dates to the homecoming dance, which caused a lot of unfocused students when it came to academics. As far as the fire drill is concerned, I am very glad I witnessed this disruption. I was able to not only see the route I would take in case of a fire, but also how the students react when back in the classroom. I saw that my CT worked with the mentality of the students, not against it, in order to have a productive classroom. She understands that 9th graders do not always have the maturity level needed to refocus their attention, and sometimes when the attention is lost you just need to “go with it” and change the plan. This was also true in the spirit day example, where there was no hope at focusing the school as a whole. Thanksgiving weekend is a huge football game for Westerly, as it has been going on for 100 years. The pep rally is very exciting and also a century long tradition, as is the activities that go on in the town after school lets out. With such exciting things coming up I can see how the students become distracted. My CT was able to see that controlling the class was the first priority, and also understanding that this day would happen beforehand. She prepared by giving the students more work the week before, and warning them that they had to get a lot done in order to have an easy day for spirit day. This was an incentive for the students while helping my CT stay on track with the curriculum. I hope that I can continue these types of classroom management strategies in the 9th grade classroom. I have learned a lot about having a lot of leeway in my lesson plans and also to be willing to change my lessons according to the students needs and moods. I am really starting to see that losing one day of instruction is not a complete failure, and sometimes a break in learning is really helpful for the students. I also see the other side of the argument, how teachers cannot disrupt their day constantly in order to appease the students. This is true, but the two examples I have given above are very different circumstances. A fire drill is common in schools, but sometimes it is hard to refocus the students. By using a worksheet to be graded, my CT demanded some of the lost focus back from the students. The pep rally day is an extreme scenario, where the school as a whole was only focused on the 100-year-old football game the next day. There was little work to be done, and the teachers seemed to be in agreement that the students would fight back and it was better for everyone to do review work and to control the classroom. This held noise levels low and continued students working, while keeping up the good mood of the school.
Game of School Reflection
The Game of School is something that I not only witnessed this semester but also participated in the past. Between students copying homework assignments to only get the grade, or having their iPod in to make it only seem like they were listening, sometimes there was a definite avoidance of learning seen in the classroom. Overall, the Game of School can be played by both teachers and students, and can also be stopped by a lot of hard work and attention to learning.
When I was in high school phones did not have Internet readily available yet. Texting was the new “thing” though and teachers were constantly yelling at us to stop and to put our phones away. All of these phones had hard loud buttons and sometimes a flip screen, which would make noise when you opened it, but none of this stopped us. Eventually we learned to type while looking up and holding the screen at an angle so they could not see the glow. Also, we began messaging each other pictures of the homework sheets so we could finish it during lunch period easier. I also remember in high school I had one teacher who gave us check marks on every assignment. My friend wrote something along the lines of “and then Jay Z and Justin Timberlake became presidents” in one of her assignments and the teacher did not notice, she still got a check. This really showed me that the assignments did not matter, and I filled out the rest of them with as little effort as needed.
I see some of the same things happening in class today. Surprisingly, there is very little texting. I mainly see twitter-ing, facebook-ing, and even pinterest-ing to distract the students from the classroom. Phones are not supposed to be used in school, for social or Internet purposes. The science classroom I am in has computers surrounding the room to connect to the Internet. Also I witnessed students incorrectly filling out their homework. They will have the teacher check their sheet, and pass it to another student who will write their name on top and pretend it is theirs. They often get caught, but I wonder how many times a class this occurs? I believe that Westerly High School definitely fits some of the stereotypes in the GOS, as explained above. Though the students that I observe are in the 9th grade, I believe that they are catching onto the game quickly.
I stopped playing the GOS when I realized that my future was depending on my grades. I was talking to my cousin, who had just been rejecting from all of his top 4 colleges, who told me he wished he just tried harder his freshman year in high school. His average was a 94 and that was not good enough for him. This was my wake up call. I was always a high B’s student, but after hearing how having a 94 average can still hold you back from your dreams, I began to work harder. I hope to somehow help the students to understand that although school may seem like a game, only pretending to learn really does affect you in the long run. You need to pour the foundation before you build a house, which is a great analogy for students struggling with science and with math. These two subjects especially need a strong background understanding in old concepts before moving onto new ones. I hope to use analogies, such as the one above, and even personal stories to help relate the information directly to the students. By showing the students directly how they can play the game of school but still not succeed, I will hopefully gain their attention and respect. I believe that students could also benefit from reading the Game of School, or something similar. I could make up a list of “You Know You’re A Teacher When…” and list various things that students do to play the game of school. This can also be flipped onto the teachers.
I will always try my hardest to pay attention to students’ answers and make work meaningful. I do not understand busywork, nor do I understand the need for homework every night of the week. I believe that the assignments I give out for students should be very straightforward and always useful. I will stay away from assignments for the sake of needed to fill a grade book, since I would like to use participation points in the grading system. This will also diminish my busywork for the students.
Overall, I believe that the Game of School was a great article to summarize all the techniques we have learned over the years and to view them in the context of a student. We always learn about the theories of teaching, this helped us learned about what isn’t written in a textbook. Students are not going to be motivated. This is something that we should always think about. This does not mean that we as teachers should not be motivated also; in fact it means the opposite. As motivated and engaging teachers, we are the first line of defense in stopping the game of school from being a repeating pattern and also in getting our students the education they deserve.
Rules of Engagement
As a student teacher I have continued the rules of my classroom as set when I came in. Many rules are about respect, as outlined in the blog entry. No sleeping, no talking, etc. I also am extremely adamant about no eating in my classroom, as well as no drinking anything besides water. My class doubles as a lab and these rules are part of the school policy on science classrooms. I am very relaxed on cell phones, however, because the way I see it it doesn't have to be a battle. I almost incorporate the use of cellphones into my classroom. For students to borrow one of my pens or pencithey mymust trade me their cell phone. I also have them set alarms on their cell phones for homework and test reminders. Both of these new rules have worked tremendously in class.
As a classroom teacher I would love to model my CTs rules of the classroom. I admire the way she can control the classroom in a manner that makes her the authority figure but also an approachable person. She is very clear on her rules in the classroom, and the students are very aware of the consequences that follow. When the rules are broken, consequences are always implemented. There are rare exceptions. When the students return to class after the consequence is implemented, however, she does not let these "bumps in the road" effect their classroom experience. Once she is done with her consequences or lectures on bad behavior she is quick to let the student know that they can move on.
I have found that I need to stand my ground much more with 9th grade students. It is much better to seem "strict" than "dumb" in front of the students. I have found myself in a position where I was trying to let's students off easy with a warning, but ended up looking "dumb" to their peers as if the student had tricked me. I am adamant about a specific set of rules now, and the students seem to respond well. For example, lateness is not accepted unless the students are crossing buildings in which case 30 seconds is allowed. If they are late I have made it well aware that they are to get a pass. I had some resistance the first week, but now there is almost nothing. I have had much less attitudes and refusal to change behaviors now that the rules are clearly outlined.
You make some interesting points about the need for rules and enforcement. When a teacher is consistent, he or she can also nurture an air of approachability. How did your reflection on rules make you think about student engagement. What strategies have you used to engage ninth graders successfully? (Side note: Get in the habit of looking for and fixing your typos.)- fogleman
(Sorry, I try to avoid typing with the iPad for this reason! I have edited the posted and hopefully gotten all of the typos)
Revise YOUR TEACHING RATIONALE BY CLICKING ON THE EDIT BUTTON BELOW
Looking back on my education, I can clearly see the differences in how my teachers have taught. Between lesson plans, lab work, exams, group work and even review sessions each teacher runs their classroom slightly different due to their individual mentalities. While this "mentality" might be easy to spot when a student in high school, it is infinitely harder to develop when putting yourself in the position of the teacher. I am writing this teaching philosophy with that in mind. I understand that this philosophy will most likely develop and grow as I do as a teacher, but this framework of my ideals is a great sketch for the type of teacher that I hope to be.
My teaching philosophy will firstly, and most importantly, be to make sure that all my students are comfortable with my classroom and with me. I would never want to put any student in an uncomfortable position, and definitely believe that it is more important to maintain good relationships than it is to understand minute details about a subject. This does not mean that I will not also be content oriented, however, I will just want to make sure the classroom is a safe and enjoyable place to be. I also want the students to be able to learn in a variety of ways. I feel the best learning takes place when connections are made (scaffolding scaffolding scaffolding!) and would like to use this for elaboration on topics they may have already learned. More specifically, I would like to employ the following methods of teaching in my classroom:
using colored pencils to differentiate from diagrams or cycles of handouts that I will give the students
many quizzes with multiple opportunities fro extra credit, in order to give students a cushion grade-wise
group work whenever possible
using biology in connection with current events or their current lives as student
I am hoping to open up students to the "world of science" in a way that helps them satisfy their own curiosity...even if that curiosity has to be cultivated first. I completely understand that some students just absolutely do not care about a subject. That was how I was, and in a way continue to feel, about history classes. In high school it was like pulling teeth for me to learn about the Ming Dynasty, or to remember the different dates of important battles in the Revolutionary War. I never truly cared about who was president at what time nor did I care about what decisions they made. My American History teacher changed that for me. He knew that I liked learning about advances in the medical field, in addition to other students, and started putting up facts about presidents during their own time period. These facts would be written on the board, and were just a little engaging piece of trivia that helped me remember who was president during what time while also letting me in on what was happening in the field of science. Not all of them were about science, some just about what the name of the president's pet was, or that the president at the time was the fattest one in history. It didn't matter what the fact was, it was just something that helped me remember. This is absolutely one of the engaging pieces of my classroom that I would like to employ.
In addition to the trivia, I would like to have students ask questions about science in daily lives. Last year I wrote a lesson plan on the journey of a ham and cheese, instead of just saying digestion. I would like to have lessons centered around things that students could relate to. For example, science of sex instead of just calling something meiosis. These small changes will help students feel like the things that they are learning are much more exciting, even if the only change is to the name of the lesson. I really believe that titles of units or lessons make a difference, since it has worked for me. Engaging names and flashy teaching methods may not make me the best teacher, but I do believe they will help me hold the students attention long enough to create the spark of curiosity. No student wants to pay attention when they know class is about chromosomes splitting and forming two cells, but if they know that class is about science of sex then I think they would be much more awake.
Beyond these philosophies and methods, I believe that students will want to learn when they see that a teacher is very excited about a topic. This has to be prefaced with students feeling a connection to the teacher, but hopefully I will have already achieved their attention and respect. I will always try to be excited about the upcoming topics and be as engaging as possible. There are many topics of science that I enjoy, but the few that I truly hate (including "sig figs" and the nitrogen cycle) I will do my best to remain engaging. I can try to make these topics enjoyable, but if it seems to be a struggle I would hopefully follow the footsteps of my high school biology teacher. He really disliked a handful of lessons that he had to teach, and warned us of this at the beginning of the school year. He told us that there are certain topics that we would not enjoy learning, that they were hard and boring and that honestly he does not enjoy teaching them. But he also promised that if we gave him our full attention during these lessons and got what we had to get done, then he would let us watch a "Body Stories" video the next class period. This method never failed. Mainly because we always wanted to watch a video when there was an opportunity to, but also because when we were listening and paying attention we got enough work done that we were not losing the extra class period by watching the video. Even if I do not use this method exactly, I remember respecting that my teacher did not like certain topics. It made me feel as if it was fine to not enjoy certain lessons, as long as you got enough work done and remembered that it was only one annoying lesson in a long unit and there were many more to enjoy.
Overall my teaching philosophy centers around making students feel comfortable enough with me as a teacher to enjoy the subject and learn as much as possible. I want my students to have answers to their questions, in addition to being able to remember those answer later on in life. The ability to form questions alone is something that I hope to cultivate in my students. In addition to these, however, I do want my students to perform well in any type of testing environment. I hope that I can really bring together my students and help them enjoy learning as much as I enjoy teaching. I really want to cultivate a strong cooperative and safe classroom environment, as seen earlier in my teaching philosophy, while still paying attention to the needs of all my students and the curriculum. I understand the complications in accomplishing all of these tasks, which brings me back to the point of growing and changing as a teacher. I do understand that there is always room for growth and change, and I am definitely open to these changes that inevitably will come to my teaching methods and ideals. I also believe that this teaching philosophy will be open enough to develop various modifications for each of my classrooms since they will all have various dynamics. I believe this philosophy will help me structure my classroom in an effective and helpful way for both me as a teacher and my future students.
Rationale Synthesis
I am happy to say that I still want to be the teacher I began the semester hoping to be. I strive to be respectful and authoritative, while being friendly to both students and other teachers. I want to set reachable goals for students and also myself. I absolutely do not want to be an absent teacher. I can't stand the feeling of knowing that the students care more about a class than the teachers, and becoming this kidn of person would be very disappointing. I don't want to be a "yeller" or a "boring teacher" or even a "pushover" by being too nice. Most simply put, I want to be a great teacher.I hope to leave a positive impact on my students. I want them to be able to look back on my time in school as fun but also as productive. I don't want my class to be only fun or only work, and I hope that I was able to achieve the balance of both. Busy work is one of my pet peeves as a student, so I assign very few assignments. Anything that I do require has a lot of merit and requires critical thinking. Students are required to reflect on their performance in my class and their behavior outside of class. I integrated Rachel's Challenge into a goal setting lesson, which is another takeaway I hope the students can appreciate.
After getting my first teaching position (which at this point I consider an accomplishment in iteself!) I would like to become an approachable teacher. I do not want to be a background staff member, never seen at meetings or only hear from on the sign in sheet. I would like to take part in a mentoring program and become familiar with teachers in my department and outside of it.
My most important feeling that I want students to associate with science is fun. Now, fun can be interpreted in many different ways, which I am well aware of. But I am not scared of a fun classroom, as long as there is control. I hope to allow enough room for students to grow academically and socially, while still enjoying my class while learning. I don't see any need for the abscence of creative projects or group discussions that are slightly off topic from the days lesson, as long as the students are being reqpectful and I am able to control the class. This is both for safety and academic reasons. Through student teaching I have realized how some of my goals seem "far-fetched" but I am proud to say that they all still stand. I want to be a teacher, friend, adult, scientist and voice of the school for my students and colleagues. Overall I hope to adopt a respectful classroom environment so that we can have fun while doing science, and not have to separate the two.
3/5 - This is a good start, Kathleen. You should expand on some of your statements so that the finished product has an introduction, a middle, and a conclusion.
The first class of Team Science is a class with noticeably immature students. The students are constantly out of their seats, making fun of each other, throwing a variety of objects across the room and even yelling at the teacher and the aid. My CT does absolutely not tolerate this behavior, although she is running out of ideas to enforce her rules. She expressed to me how she is upset by the fact that this class is becoming a stressful environment for not only her to teach in but also the other students to learn in. Primarily, there is one troubled student who is constantly arguing back to the teacher. He tries to get his friends to agree with him, which causes more bad behavior. Lately, the other students are beginning to get annoyed by him, and he is no longer able to get their attention. He is the only one that is continuously getting in trouble for acting out, and doesn’t seem to be slowing down his behavior. I witnessed him cursing not only about the work he was expected to do, but also at being “stuck in this hell hole of a class” under his breath. None of the students were reacting to his behavior, which seemed to only make him more upset.
The second class of Team Science could not be more different. The students are also more immature in this class, but in a friendlier way. These students are more likely to laugh at the word “fart” than to start arguments with the teacher. I have witnessed every single one of these students do their work when told to, including notes from the board and worksheets, with only being reminded once. This class does have some students who speak up, but when they are reprimanded the argument is immediately over and there are no hurt feelings. This class is also almost a whole lesson ahead of the other, since they are able to get through the curriculum easier. The students in this class respect both my CT and myself, and are constantly under control even though there is no Teachers Aid in the room.
The other three classes are much more like the second class I described above, with friendly atmospheres and are able to complete their work. The first Team Class is unique in that I was able to see how one student can ruin a classroom. I understand that this immaturity is very abundant in a 9th grade classroom, but I am not sure how teachers can cope with the stress if it was in every class. I was more “drained” after this one class than I was after the whole day combined. My CT is able to keep the power in the classroom, which is a good and a bad thing. She is able to maintain the attention of the students, while still giving them freedoms that they understand can be taken away if abused. On the other side, she will not give up the power in the classroom to students who do not deserve it, which causes more issues when students are relentless about winning arguments. I definitely want to keep the power in my classroom, but understand that this is much more necessary in 9th grade classes. Being in a 9th grade classroom is constantly a respect and power struggle, which is something I am looking forward to conquering as one of my challenges as a student teacher.
The first event I witnessed was my first fire drill. It was uncommonly warm out for the first week of November, and there was a fire drill with 20 minutes left in the class period. Of course, word broke out among the students that there was going to be a “surprise” fire drill and they would not stop talking among themselves. The whole class made it to the meeting spot on time, and back to the classroom together, but when we returned there was almost no way to get any work done. The students were out of control, and two of the boys seemed to think that it was ok to have a volleyball game across the room with their scrap paper. As a whole, the students were very excited and in a good mood, but the energy in the room was disobedient. My CT changed her plans for the rest of the class and had the students finish the work they were supposed to do for homework. They were allowed to read or talk to their neighbor when they were finished, but this privilege got take away. She always tells the students that they start with freedoms and they get taken away when they do not earn them, and the talking and bad behavior was why they had to sit quietly and finish their work. Also, she had the homework sheet count as a graded worksheet (instead of just checked for completion) in order to reinforce the consequence of acting out.
The second time I was not present for, but it was a significant even that I wish to reflect on. The day before Thanksgiving break, Westerly High School has a spirit day. There is a hot coco station all day, the band plays through the hallways and the end of the day is replaced with a pep rally. Overall this day is seen to be a waste of teacher’s time, since none of the teachers can get the students to work productively. From what I have heard, there were a lot of movies shown in class in hopes that the students wouldn’t cause disruptions to other rooms. In my classroom, my CT said the students were listening to her as far as noise level was concerned but there is no hope of getting any work done whenever it is a pep rally day. In addition to being spirit day, this is the day that most students got asked as dates to the homecoming dance, which caused a lot of unfocused students when it came to academics.
As far as the fire drill is concerned, I am very glad I witnessed this disruption. I was able to not only see the route I would take in case of a fire, but also how the students react when back in the classroom. I saw that my CT worked with the mentality of the students, not against it, in order to have a productive classroom. She understands that 9th graders do not always have the maturity level needed to refocus their attention, and sometimes when the attention is lost you just need to “go with it” and change the plan. This was also true in the spirit day example, where there was no hope at focusing the school as a whole. Thanksgiving weekend is a huge football game for Westerly, as it has been going on for 100 years. The pep rally is very exciting and also a century long tradition, as is the activities that go on in the town after school lets out. With such exciting things coming up I can see how the students become distracted. My CT was able to see that controlling the class was the first priority, and also understanding that this day would happen beforehand. She prepared by giving the students more work the week before, and warning them that they had to get a lot done in order to have an easy day for spirit day. This was an incentive for the students while helping my CT stay on track with the curriculum.
I hope that I can continue these types of classroom management strategies in the 9th grade classroom. I have learned a lot about having a lot of leeway in my lesson plans and also to be willing to change my lessons according to the students needs and moods. I am really starting to see that losing one day of instruction is not a complete failure, and sometimes a break in learning is really helpful for the students. I also see the other side of the argument, how teachers cannot disrupt their day constantly in order to appease the students. This is true, but the two examples I have given above are very different circumstances. A fire drill is common in schools, but sometimes it is hard to refocus the students. By using a worksheet to be graded, my CT demanded some of the lost focus back from the students. The pep rally day is an extreme scenario, where the school as a whole was only focused on the 100-year-old football game the next day. There was little work to be done, and the teachers seemed to be in agreement that the students would fight back and it was better for everyone to do review work and to control the classroom. This held noise levels low and continued students working, while keeping up the good mood of the school.
When I was in high school phones did not have Internet readily available yet. Texting was the new “thing” though and teachers were constantly yelling at us to stop and to put our phones away. All of these phones had hard loud buttons and sometimes a flip screen, which would make noise when you opened it, but none of this stopped us. Eventually we learned to type while looking up and holding the screen at an angle so they could not see the glow. Also, we began messaging each other pictures of the homework sheets so we could finish it during lunch period easier. I also remember in high school I had one teacher who gave us check marks on every assignment. My friend wrote something along the lines of “and then Jay Z and Justin Timberlake became presidents” in one of her assignments and the teacher did not notice, she still got a check. This really showed me that the assignments did not matter, and I filled out the rest of them with as little effort as needed.
I see some of the same things happening in class today. Surprisingly, there is very little texting. I mainly see twitter-ing, facebook-ing, and even pinterest-ing to distract the students from the classroom. Phones are not supposed to be used in school, for social or Internet purposes. The science classroom I am in has computers surrounding the room to connect to the Internet. Also I witnessed students incorrectly filling out their homework. They will have the teacher check their sheet, and pass it to another student who will write their name on top and pretend it is theirs. They often get caught, but I wonder how many times a class this occurs? I believe that Westerly High School definitely fits some of the stereotypes in the GOS, as explained above. Though the students that I observe are in the 9th grade, I believe that they are catching onto the game quickly.
I stopped playing the GOS when I realized that my future was depending on my grades. I was talking to my cousin, who had just been rejecting from all of his top 4 colleges, who told me he wished he just tried harder his freshman year in high school. His average was a 94 and that was not good enough for him. This was my wake up call. I was always a high B’s student, but after hearing how having a 94 average can still hold you back from your dreams, I began to work harder. I hope to somehow help the students to understand that although school may seem like a game, only pretending to learn really does affect you in the long run. You need to pour the foundation before you build a house, which is a great analogy for students struggling with science and with math. These two subjects especially need a strong background understanding in old concepts before moving onto new ones. I hope to use analogies, such as the one above, and even personal stories to help relate the information directly to the students. By showing the students directly how they can play the game of school but still not succeed, I will hopefully gain their attention and respect. I believe that students could also benefit from reading the Game of School, or something similar. I could make up a list of “You Know You’re A Teacher When…” and list various things that students do to play the game of school. This can also be flipped onto the teachers.
I will always try my hardest to pay attention to students’ answers and make work meaningful. I do not understand busywork, nor do I understand the need for homework every night of the week. I believe that the assignments I give out for students should be very straightforward and always useful. I will stay away from assignments for the sake of needed to fill a grade book, since I would like to use participation points in the grading system. This will also diminish my busywork for the students.
Overall, I believe that the Game of School was a great article to summarize all the techniques we have learned over the years and to view them in the context of a student. We always learn about the theories of teaching, this helped us learned about what isn’t written in a textbook. Students are not going to be motivated. This is something that we should always think about. This does not mean that we as teachers should not be motivated also; in fact it means the opposite. As motivated and engaging teachers, we are the first line of defense in stopping the game of school from being a repeating pattern and also in getting our students the education they deserve.
As a classroom teacher I would love to model my CTs rules of the classroom. I admire the way she can control the classroom in a manner that makes her the authority figure but also an approachable person. She is very clear on her rules in the classroom, and the students are very aware of the consequences that follow. When the rules are broken, consequences are always implemented. There are rare exceptions. When the students return to class after the consequence is implemented, however, she does not let these "bumps in the road" effect their classroom experience. Once she is done with her consequences or lectures on bad behavior she is quick to let the student know that they can move on.
I have found that I need to stand my ground much more with 9th grade students. It is much better to seem "strict" than "dumb" in front of the students. I have found myself in a position where I was trying to let's students off easy with a warning, but ended up looking "dumb" to their peers as if the student had tricked me. I am adamant about a specific set of rules now, and the students seem to respond well. For example, lateness is not accepted unless the students are crossing buildings in which case 30 seconds is allowed. If they are late I have made it well aware that they are to get a pass. I had some resistance the first week, but now there is almost nothing. I have had much less attitudes and refusal to change behaviors now that the rules are clearly outlined.
You make some interesting points about the need for rules and enforcement. When a teacher is consistent, he or she can also nurture an air of approachability. How did your reflection on rules make you think about student engagement. What strategies have you used to engage ninth graders successfully? (Side note: Get in the habit of looking for and fixing your typos.)-
(Sorry, I try to avoid typing with the iPad for this reason! I have edited the posted and hopefully gotten all of the typos)
Revise YOUR TEACHING RATIONALE BY CLICKING ON THE EDIT BUTTON BELOW
My teaching philosophy will firstly, and most importantly, be to make sure that all my students are comfortable with my classroom and with me. I would never want to put any student in an uncomfortable position, and definitely believe that it is more important to maintain good relationships than it is to understand minute details about a subject. This does not mean that I will not also be content oriented, however, I will just want to make sure the classroom is a safe and enjoyable place to be. I also want the students to be able to learn in a variety of ways. I feel the best learning takes place when connections are made (scaffolding scaffolding scaffolding!) and would like to use this for elaboration on topics they may have already learned. More specifically, I would like to employ the following methods of teaching in my classroom:
I am hoping to open up students to the "world of science" in a way that helps them satisfy their own curiosity...even if that curiosity has to be cultivated first. I completely understand that some students just absolutely do not care about a subject. That was how I was, and in a way continue to feel, about history classes. In high school it was like pulling teeth for me to learn about the Ming Dynasty, or to remember the different dates of important battles in the Revolutionary War. I never truly cared about who was president at what time nor did I care about what decisions they made. My American History teacher changed that for me. He knew that I liked learning about advances in the medical field, in addition to other students, and started putting up facts about presidents during their own time period. These facts would be written on the board, and were just a little engaging piece of trivia that helped me remember who was president during what time while also letting me in on what was happening in the field of science. Not all of them were about science, some just about what the name of the president's pet was, or that the president at the time was the fattest one in history. It didn't matter what the fact was, it was just something that helped me remember. This is absolutely one of the engaging pieces of my classroom that I would like to employ.
In addition to the trivia, I would like to have students ask questions about science in daily lives. Last year I wrote a lesson plan on the journey of a ham and cheese, instead of just saying digestion. I would like to have lessons centered around things that students could relate to. For example, science of sex instead of just calling something meiosis. These small changes will help students feel like the things that they are learning are much more exciting, even if the only change is to the name of the lesson. I really believe that titles of units or lessons make a difference, since it has worked for me. Engaging names and flashy teaching methods may not make me the best teacher, but I do believe they will help me hold the students attention long enough to create the spark of curiosity. No student wants to pay attention when they know class is about chromosomes splitting and forming two cells, but if they know that class is about science of sex then I think they would be much more awake.
Beyond these philosophies and methods, I believe that students will want to learn when they see that a teacher is very excited about a topic. This has to be prefaced with students feeling a connection to the teacher, but hopefully I will have already achieved their attention and respect. I will always try to be excited about the upcoming topics and be as engaging as possible. There are many topics of science that I enjoy, but the few that I truly hate (including "sig figs" and the nitrogen cycle) I will do my best to remain engaging. I can try to make these topics enjoyable, but if it seems to be a struggle I would hopefully follow the footsteps of my high school biology teacher. He really disliked a handful of lessons that he had to teach, and warned us of this at the beginning of the school year. He told us that there are certain topics that we would not enjoy learning, that they were hard and boring and that honestly he does not enjoy teaching them. But he also promised that if we gave him our full attention during these lessons and got what we had to get done, then he would let us watch a "Body Stories" video the next class period. This method never failed. Mainly because we always wanted to watch a video when there was an opportunity to, but also because when we were listening and paying attention we got enough work done that we were not losing the extra class period by watching the video. Even if I do not use this method exactly, I remember respecting that my teacher did not like certain topics. It made me feel as if it was fine to not enjoy certain lessons, as long as you got enough work done and remembered that it was only one annoying lesson in a long unit and there were many more to enjoy.
Overall my teaching philosophy centers around making students feel comfortable enough with me as a teacher to enjoy the subject and learn as much as possible. I want my students to have answers to their questions, in addition to being able to remember those answer later on in life. The ability to form questions alone is something that I hope to cultivate in my students. In addition to these, however, I do want my students to perform well in any type of testing environment. I hope that I can really bring together my students and help them enjoy learning as much as I enjoy teaching. I really want to cultivate a strong cooperative and safe classroom environment, as seen earlier in my teaching philosophy, while still paying attention to the needs of all my students and the curriculum. I understand the complications in accomplishing all of these tasks, which brings me back to the point of growing and changing as a teacher. I do understand that there is always room for growth and change, and I am definitely open to these changes that inevitably will come to my teaching methods and ideals. I also believe that this teaching philosophy will be open enough to develop various modifications for each of my classrooms since they will all have various dynamics. I believe this philosophy will help me structure my classroom in an effective and helpful way for both me as a teacher and my future students.